A friend recently loaned me a book I've started reading. (More on the book itself later, once I actually finish.) I got a little ways into it before discovering that it is the first of a projected series of seven books, only two of which have been published so far.
The prospect of now being adrift in another incomplete series is making me really jones for George R.R. Martin to get his shit together and finish the next Ice and Fire book. I understand these things are epic. (A Storm of Swords had a word count about three times longer than the average published novel.) I understand that quality should not suffer for speed. (The first four books have been great, and I don't want that to change with the next book.)
But still...
It's been almost two years now since book four (A Feast for Crows) was published. And Martin had some of the next book (A Dance with Dragons) finished already at that time -- he'd originally planned it all as one larger novel that ultimately was separated into two. I don't think I'm unreasonable to expect the thing should be done by now.
Here's my reasoning. I don't ask that he work weekends. I don't ask that he work holidays. Go ahead, let him take vacations, say a more-than-typical vacation package in the standards of the white-collar business world. I make that an extremely modest 200 work days in the year.
Now let's say that on a work day, he has to write 1,000 words. That's it. A thousand words is not a lot. I've written that much on my blog just this week, not even including this rant thus far. Of course, I'm not saying this is Martin-caliber writing. But A) he's the professional writer, not me; and 2) I spent a collected total of maybe 30 minutes producing those 1,000 words. If I spent, say, something like a normalish eight hour work day on them, I'll bet I could produce something pretty damn clever. (Again, perhaps not Martinly, but... see point A.)
So, a thousand words a work day. Seems to me this book should be done by now, even if it's longer than A Storm of Swords.
The old cliche goes that "writers write." So snap to it, man!
7 comments:
Wow, another Martin rant??
Man, when the damn book does finally come out, I for one expect you to shut the fuck up.
:)
FKL
well if the book takes about week to read, it must have taken about a week to write, right? So technically he could have written dozens of books by now...
what a weird thing it must be to have a "creative" job. you think he might LOVE writing and do it all day long. but surely that's not the case if it takes him so long to write? maybe he's just really picky and re-writes stuff all day long to get it perfect?
I guess I just think you can't apply work-day-hours to something that requires creativity. 'hurry up' and 'create' don't mix very well (usually...) I gotta get me one of those jobs!
the mole
1) If your friend had given me that book he'd be my ex-friend... not in the sense that he'd cease being my friend, he'd cease breathing.
2) The only thing _I_ think you leave out of your calculations is various travel time and time spent on promotions and book readings and meetings with editors etc. Believe me, I think you're right and all this "you can't be creative on a schedule" stuff is just an excuse to be lazy... I'm just pointing out other sources of wasted time for writers. (Meetings being the great equalizer in that no matter WHAT your job is it seems your boss can find a way to call meetings such that your productivity goes down)
Snarky Smurf
I speak from something resembling experience, as I set out to write a novel late last year. I was still working my normal eight hours a day job, writing for an hour or two when I came home each night and sometimes longer on weekends and holidays. I set the same goal, about 1,000 words per day.
In 66 days, I wrote on all but 6 days. My novel checked in at about 85,000 words. That's nearly 1,300 words/day, with, I'd say, an average of about two hours spent each day writing.
Also, after each chapter was done, I'd print it out (usually a day later) and read it over, editing as I went, then going back and putting the changes back in the electronic copy. When it was all "done," I ignored it for a week and then went back and re-read the whole thing and edited parts of it again. I'd like to do it again, when I find the will and time.
Total, I spent maybe three months working on the "finished" book, all while still working my normal job. It's about a third as long as an Ice & Fire book, so yes, I do conclude that GRRM is a wimp who should be able to get one of those books out at a rate not much longer than once a year :)
When the book finally does come out, rest assured I will shut the fuck up. Until the rants over the wait for the sixth book start. :-)
That's nothing - it's going on 14 years since the last of David Gerrold's "War Against the Chtorr" books. And he's been "working on it" the entire time.
Going by GRRM's blog, I think a lot of it has been rewrites. He recently re-did the prologue, for example. Editing a book of that size must take at least as much time as it takes to write it.
Snarky -
In my defense I told DrHeimlich that it was the first in a series. He went in eyes wide open my friend.
And notice that I didn't ask if you wanted to read it, I know better!
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